I laughed at him as he said this. “I am not an angel,” I asserted; “and I will not be one till I die; I will be myself, Mr. Rochester; you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me, for you will not get it any more than I shall get it of you, which I do not at all anticipate.”
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. After Rochester describes Jane as “a very angel” she laughs at him and dismisses the very idea. Jane is an untypical independent woman in Victorian England, determined to retain her autonomous spirit in a marriage with Rochester. Her own woman, Jane is nobody’s angel. Rochester has been trying unsuccessfully to lavish her with jewels and fine clothes, which she has refused. She makes clear that she will continue to be true to who she is after they marry.